Problogger.net runs on the Genesis Framework
The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.
Check out the incredible features and the selection of designs. It’s that simple – start using Genesis now!
You Are Here: Home » Influence Blog » 1 Step Closes for Inbound Leads
29Apr 2011Posted by Joshua Barnes1 Step Closes for Inbound Leads
Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.
If you’re in marketing, and you’re participating in a demand generation campaign, or your customer is, you’re likely trying to convert those clicks, downloads and visits to revenue. Some people get the joy of not having to worry about drive revenue, but for those of us that need to drive revenue, it’s important to learn early how to make the most of each of the leads that are coming in.
Trying to close inbound leads in 1 step is a tall order, if we think in traditional terms and ideas. But it’s not that tall of an order if you think in the same way that sales people would. The step is; qualification. It’s a very simple thing to do, but even simpler to overlook, especially when all the activity generated by the prospect seems to portend so much interest. Having spent 6 years in hunter sales, I know how easy it is to assume that someone asking for a price, or a contract or a meeting can look like buying signals, but the reality all to often is that these prospects are just kicking tires. So what then are we to do? We can’t very well ignore those buying signals…
The process we need to work all prospects through is a marketing qualification process and the point that I’m going to continue to drive is that marketing is not selling and telling is not selling. If you want to attract a loyal base of customers, empower them to buy the right thing at the right time, and from you, when appropriate. That’s called qualifying and each stage is just a greater and more detailed stage of qualification. Your goal, believe it or not, should be to find a reason for them not to buy, this is how you’ll know if they really need to and will want to buy.
It follows very closely, that if you’re the one helping the clients learn how to buy the best product, and if you have the product their interested in, you’re the natural choice. This is the process I used very successfully in sales for 6 years. The challenge that marketers will have is that they don’t generally have face to face access to their leads. However, this is the very reason why qualification is all the more important.
So, my mantra is, qualified leads sell and unqualified leads don’t; so don’t sell, qualify.
Joshua Barnes
Information technologist, blogger, social media commando, and guitar un-virtuoso.
Posted in: SocialMatica
Tags: social media, social media intelligence platform, social media platform, targeting intelligence, twitterRelated Posts
You’ve got to be quick to snap up some of the treasures at the Chowder & Marching tag sale. And preferably, have manners.
“If you see something being unloaded, you should say ‘may I please see that?’ to claim it,” said Lori Lowell, of New Milford, CT. “But not everyone does.”
Lowell gestured to the group of onlookers standing at the spot where tag sale donors pull up in cars to unload new merchandise.
Lowell should know. She’s been coming with the same group of ladies to the Chowder & Marching tag sale at Crusher Yard in Bedford for years; they make a day of it, starting with breakfast. Her finds in recent years include antique flowerpots for under $20 that would have “easily gone for $125 a an antique shop,” she said. This year, she had so far picked up a framed map of Somers dating back to 1867.
Shoppers on Friday would also find board games, a jogging stroller, a glass-topped console table and a Pottery Barn cabinet with nary a scratch. You never know what you’ll find at the tag sale each year, said Linda deMenocal, a tag sale organizer and Chowder & Marching Club member.
“We’ve got over 200 volunteers organizing merchandise, doing pickups and manning the sale,” she said. All proceeds support C&M causes, which range from little league sponsorship, to scholarships for Fox Lane students to arts programs for Bedford youth.
The club started in the 1950s as a way to supplant enriching activities in the community that weren’t being funded by the PTA, she said. Twenty couples from Bedford Village belong to the service organization.
“Back then, that was about how many people you could fit into a living room,” said Candy Borner, a member. That practice hasn’t changed. The group meets monthly to plan programs and vote on how to spend dollars raised.
The group supports programs in sports, the arts, and academics. Beneficiaries include the Bedford-Pound Ridge Little League, Bedford Village Swim Team, Fox Lane Athletics, Fox Lane yearbook, Friends of Music and the Arts, New Youth Performing Theater, and Caramoor Culture, Music and Arts Educational Programs for BVES students.
In addition to the tag sale, club members and community volunteers had cleaned up over 20 miles of Bedford roads up until this weekend, and have capital improvement projects in the works, said deMenocal. “Our next goal is to create a bike/walk trail around the perimeter of the Bedford Village park.”
The sale hours are from 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Saturday.
DEERPARK, ORANGE COUNTY — Health care, taxes and Indian Point were the topics that dominated US. Rep Nan Hayworth’s public forum at Deerpark town hall Thursday.
About 50 people attended the meeting and vented their frustrations to Hayworth, R-Mount Kisco, inside town hall, located approximately two hours north of New York City in the western portion of Orange County.
Hayworth, who has served a little more than 100 days in office after defeating Democrat John Hall In November, patiently stood and answered a wide range of questions from the audience. The mood was cordial for the most part, but there were a few topics that caused the atmosphere inside the small meeting hall to spike with excitement.
Hayworth, a retired eye doctor, represents the 19th Congressional District district is made up of northern Westchester County—including Mount Kisco, Bedford and Yorktown—all of Putnam County, southern Dutchess County, most of Orange County and northern Rockland County.
Dorothy Winners, a resident of Slate Hill, NY, questioned Hayworth about her belief that the Indian Point nuclear power point, located in Buchanan, is safe and secure.
”Now, I find that almost impossible to believe that anybody could not be seriously concerned about nuclear energy at this point, especially with no evacuation plan that could work for Indian Point being as close to New York City as it is,” Winners said. “There’s so much population there. I think we need to take a very serious look at nuclear energy and nuclear safety and I think you need to restate your position.”
Hayworth acknowledged that Indian Point has been an area of concern in light of the ongoing problems with the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan and the threat of a possible terrorist attack.
But Hayworth said the Japanese nuclear power plant is different from Indian Point due to the fact that it is located on more vulnerable section of land in the Pacific. Even though Indian Point is located near the Ramapo fault, Hayworth said it did not pose the same seismic risk.
“It is true that we have slip faults throughout the northeast and we actually live in one of the most seismically active areas in the country…but it’s a different type of seismic situation and seismic risk than at Fukushima Dai-Ichi,” Hayworth said.
Hayworth said she spoke with representative from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and they assured her that none of the nuclear power plants stateside had an immediate risk similar to the one in Japan.
“I’m not personally concerned and I live downwind of Indian Point…I’m not concerned that I am in imminent danger to be sure,” Hayworth said. “I’m not concerned that they are irresponsible in any way. “
Darrell McElroy, of Middletown, Orange County, questioned Hayworth about her decision to support the budget proposal introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, and other cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
“Your vote to repeal the health care law, if it gets passed, is going to impact my 21-year-old brother who doesn’t have health insurance,” McElroy said. “It could impact my niece, who was born 16 weeks premature. She’s eligible for Medicaid. Your vote on the Ryan budget, I’m concerned that by making it a block grant that to save money, states will just cut money without any care or caution.”
Hayworth said Ryan’s budget proposal would bring federal spending back to balance gradually. While the cuts are difficult, Hayworth said it would impossible taxpayers to enjoy the fruits of their labor if federal government continued to spend in ways that can’t be sustained.
“We’re on a track to not be able to afford that and your children are going to be paying for it and we can’t get around that,” Hayworth said. “It’s just a fact. When you fund things with debt, someone eventually has to pay. We are adding to the debt. We’re not even going close to paying it.”
Luise Vandemark, a cervical cancer survivor who also resides in Huguenot, expressed her concerns to cuts to Planned Parenthood. She said Planned Parenthood was the only option for young many women to get exams.
“By cutting that ,you are cutting services to a lot of young woman,” Vandemark said. “I was fortunate. My husband had medical insurance. Where are these young people supposed to go who can’t find a job, are at jobs that don’t have insurance? You’re a doctor. You’re a woman. Care about the young woman.”
Hayworth, who supports abortion rights, voted to eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood. She said there is strong sentiment from taxpayers across the country who don’t want their funds used for abortions and she felt obligated uphold that sentiment. She said the responsibility now belongs to Planned Parenthood to respond to that sentiment.
“If Planned Parenthood could completely get away from that specific aspect of the service range it provides, then I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t be happy to assist in the process of keeping vital services open to people who need it the most,” Hayworth said.
Source: S9.com
It looks like sitcom series veteran and current “Cougar Town” star, Christa Miller, and producer hubby, Bill Lawrence, are itching to get out of the Los Angeles real estate market. So eager, in fact, they are listing their home at a loss. Miller’s Brentwood home is currently listed for $10,950,000. The Hollywood couple purchased the home from fellow TV star Victoria Principal back in 2007 for $12,600,000.
According to Zillow’s Price History chart, this isn’t the first time Miller and Lawrence attempted to sell their 9,552-sq ft home. Records show the gated estate originally hit the market in June 2010 for $12,250,000. After five months with no buyers, the listing was taken off the market and re-listed at the current, 11.8 percent reduced asking price.
The listing describes Lawrence and Miller’s Brentwood home as an “exceptional East Coast traditional estate” that sits on a 0.82-acre lot with “every imaginable amenity and comfort.” Knowing celebrity amenities can range anywhere from an in-house nightclub to a resort-style swimming pool, “every imaginable amenity” is a tall order. This 6-bedroom, 9-bathroom home is certainly equipped with a long list of features that stay on the more traditional side with an extra flair of luxury. Each of the 6 bedrooms, for example, are bedroom suites with their own bathroom. Plus, there are two paneled offices. Additional amenities include multiple sets of French doors that open to front and rear stone loggias, a master suite with his and her baths and fitted closets, a cooks kitchen with breakfast area, media room, playroom, sitting room with walnut floors, beamed ceilings, five fireplaces, and an expansive back yard with rose gardens, city views, swimming pool and spa.
The home is listed by Prudential California Realty
The National Association of Realtors next month will consider revising rules governing multiple listing services in order to explicitly permit brokers or agents to display Internet Data Exchange (IDX) listings on social networking sites and mobile devices.
Some aspects of proposed changes to NAR’s IDX policy — particularly a recommendation to allow IDX listings to be distributed using Really Simple Syndication, or RSS — have raised concerns by The Realty Alliance, a network of 60 real estate companies whose members include HomeServices of America Inc.
Distribution of listings via RSS “allows anyone to obtain all data in an MLS area with no permission required and allows situations where another broker, who does not have a contract with the seller, (will) broadly publish another broker’s listing data with no limitations,” The Realty Alliance said in a letter to the chairman of NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee, Pat Callan.
“This creates a condition where the legally responsible broker is no longer in compliance with their contract with the seller and their MLS rules and regulations.”
NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee, which has been grappling with the issue for more than a year, is scheduled to debate the issue again next month at NAR’s midyear meeting in Washington, D.C.
Brokers and agents have wide leeway over how and where they distribute their own listings in order to market properties on behalf of clients.
But IDX listings — which include all the listings in a given market that brokers have agreed can be published on each other’s sanctioned IDX websites — are governed by more complex rules.
One intent of the rules is to encourage brokers to participate in the IDX system by providing assurances that listings they represent won’t be redistributed to other, nonsanctioned sites without their OK.
(In a separate debate involving NAR’s IDX policy, The Realty Alliance and Leading Real Estate Cos. of the World are protesting NAR’s decision to allow franchise companies to index and display their broker’s IDX listings.)
According to the latest report of a work group created to study the issue, NAR began receiving questions from MLS administrators early last year on whether the Internet display of IDX listings was limited to member agents’ or brokers’ sanctioned IDX websites, and whether delivery via RSS subscription was allowed.
The work group recommended revising the IDX policy to expressly authorize display of IDX information not only on MLS members’ sanctioned IDX websites, “but also using RSS subscription, social media, mobile devices, and other electronic means.”
The work group’s proposal was presented to the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee in November at NAR’s annual convention in New Orleans.
A number of MLS administrators voiced concerns about compliance, questioning how they would monitor social media sites and mobile devices to make sure IDX rules were being followed. Some wondered whether listings posted to social media sites would be kept up to date, and whether required IDX disclosures could fit into formats like text messages and “tweets.”
The committee put off making a recommendation to NAR’s board of directors, and directed the work group to reconsider issues raised by MLSs.
After meeting again last month, the work group issued another report, acknowledging the issues raised by MLS administrators but concluding that such concerns were outweighed by the benefits of increased exposure of listings.
Increasing the ways MLS members can deliver IDX listings to consumers “might somewhat diminish the control MLSs exercise over that information, and might increase the administrative burden of MLSs,” the work group concluded in its report. But “the value to sellers, potential purchasers, and to MLS participants and subscribers that will result from increased availability of those listings through enhanced IDX channels outweighs those concerns.”
The Realty Alliance questioned that conclusion, saying the return on investment in distributing listings to multiple websites “drops dramatically after just a handful of websites,” while problems and liabilities increase.
“There is no consumer outcry for more sources of listing data, as there exists today a bewildering amount of options, and they tend to concentrate their time on a small number of reliable sites,” The Realty Alliance said. “Too often the obscure, third-party websites have old, expired and inaccurate data and do not produce meaningful leads for our firms anyway.”
Concerns about RSS
Joe Horning, chairman of The Realty Alliance’s board of directors and the president of Wisconsin’s largest brokerage, Shorewest Realtors, said that the group is mostly concerned about RSS distribution of IDX listings.
A number of vendors offer “framed” solutions that allow agents to display IDX listings and provide IDX listings searches on their personal website, Facebook page, or blog that are actually driven by the brokers’ or agents’ sanctioned IDX websites.
“If I put my listings on my Facebook page (using an application) that frames my (sanctioned IDX) site, that’s not really putting listings on a social media site,” Horning said. “That’s fine.”
Similarly, “We don’t have issues with mobile devices, when they are pulling (listing) data off the (MLS or MLS vendor’s) server,” because the information will be accurate and accessed with permission. “The RSS transmittal, we’re definitely concerned about.”
As its name implies, Really Simple Syndication is easier for brokers and agents to implement than “framed” solutions or application programming interfaces (APIs) that typically require support from vendors.
It’s also easier for an agent’s clients to tap into an RSS feed — and, critics say, help themselves to listings data in unintended ways.
Michael Wurzer, president and CEO of Fargo, N.D.-based MLS vendor, FBS, said RSS is typically used by brokers and agents who want to provide buyers with updates on new listings in a particular neighborhood they’re interested in, rather than to provide a stream of every available listing.
Such uses go hand in hand with mobile devices, Wurzer said. “To be able to read an RSS (listings) feed with Flipboard (a feed reader app) — that’s cool. Who doesn’t want that?”
Wurzer said if the concern is that permitting brokers to provide RSS feeds of IDX listings would leave “the whole feed just sitting there, that it just lays it out for anybody,” then the work group’s recommendations could probably be tightened while still permitting more limited use of RSS feeds.
Mobile “is an interesting twist,” Wurzer said, because while brokers and agents can easily argue that a website that’s been optimized for mobile falls under the existing definition of an allowable IDX website, “when you enter the world of native applications, that’s a little more fuzzy.”
MLS executives have said they aren’t sure how they will monitor mobile applications that provide IDX listings for compliance.
APIs and framed solutions
In a blog post on the topic, Wurzer said the work group “seems to have the right intent, which is to allow IDX to be a source of innovation and competition for brokers and agents.”
But the work group’s recommendations could be further refined, perhaps by limiting the number of fields allowed in an RSS feed, or to allow listings to be accessed only through queries directly to MLS servers by purpose-built APIs.
Wurzer’s company, FBS, already makes a WordPress plug-in and API that work with the company’s flexmls IDX system.
Janet Choynowski, CEO of Immobel Group, said Immobel’s IDX-Buzz product serves IDX listings “with full IDX rules and disclaimers embedded” on social media sites such as an agent’s or broker’s Facebook business page.
“With the IDX-Buzz product, they go in a controlled, quality-assured way, disclaimers and all,” Choynowski said in an email. “I think it gives a comfort level, rather than having members posting content to Facebook and tweeting it willy-nilly.”
